ON A sunny August day 50 years ago, the Daily Express tapped into the shocked mood of a nation digesting the bravado and ruthlessness of the Great Train Robbery.

The Daily Express reported the robbery in 1963, suggesting armed guards were needed on mail trains

The events of what happened in the very early hours of August 8, 1963, when the gang robbed what would now be £46million have since passed into folklore.

And tonight, they are being remembered when former Buckinghamshire Constabulary officers will be praised for the work they did at the time of the robbery and during the search for the culprits.

Twelve of the robbers were jailed for a total of more than 300 years, although more than one broke out of prison, including notorious Ronnie Biggs.

He spent more than 30 years on the run before he finally returned to Britain in 2001 to face arrest. Reynolds returned in 1968, five years after the crime, and was captured in Torquay and jailed for 25 years.

He died six months ago, aged 81. Two police officers who were involved in the investigation will attend tonight's event alongside serving Thames Valley Police officers at Eynsham Hall in Witney, Oxfordshire.

Keith Milner was a detective at Aylesbury at the time of the robbery, while John Woolley was a PC and discovered Leatherslade Farm, where the men hid after committing the crime.

Last month, Biggs insisted he was proud to have been part of the gang. The famous fugitive, who will celebrate his 84th birthday tomorrow, escaped from prison in 1965 and spent 36 years on the run before finally being arrested and jailed in 2001.

It was woefully planned and disastrously executed by a bunch of incompetent criminals

Veteran Press Association reporter Chris Moncrieff

Released from prison on compassionate grounds in 2009 due to ill health he is still alive, being cared for in a north London nursing home.

And he has few regrets about the crime that made him a household name. Biggs, who cannot speak and communicates through a spelling board, said: "If you want to ask me if I have any regrets about being one of the train robbers, my answer is, 'No!'.

"I will go further: I am proud to have been one of them. I am equally happy to be described as the 'tea-boy' or 'The Brain'.

"I was there that August night and that is what counts. I am one of the few witnesses - living or dead - to what was 'The Crime of the Century'.

“It may top £2,500,000!” screamed the newspaper’s front page headline on August 9, the day after a gang of robbers held up an overnight mail train carrying vast quantities of bank notes from Glasgow to Euston.

“Now - the angry questions,” the newspaper reported above a graphic showing how Bruce Reynolds’ gang had carried out what was the world’s greatest train robbery.

A staff reporter wrote that Postmaster-General Reginald Bevins had broken off his holiday at his Liverpool home to fly back to London, demanding to know how it had happened.

Train driver Jack Mills was “comfortable” in Aylesbury hospital in Buckinghamshire with his wife and 22-year-old son by his side after being hit over his head with an iron bar.

It was an injury that practically ended his career and which his family argued caused his death seven years later.

Alongside the robbery story, the newspaper also reported on the fight to save US President John F Kennedy’s one-day-old baby son, Patrick.

He died a day later from respiratory distress syndrome, three months before JFK himself was killed by an assassin’s bullet in Dallas, Texas.

”But although he is proud to have been involved in the headline-grabbing crime, he admitted he does have some regrets.

"It is regrettable, as I have said many times, that the train driver was injured," he said. "And he was not the only victim.The people who paid the heaviest price for the Great Train Robbery are the families.

"The families of everyone involved in the Great Train Robbery, and from both sides of the track. All have paid a price for our collective involvement in the robbery. A very heavy price, in the case of my family.

The events of what happened in the very early hours of August 8, 1963, when the gang robbed what would now be £46million have since passed into folklore.

And tonight, they are being remembered when former Buckinghamshire Constabulary officers will be praised for the work they did at the time of the robbery and during the search for the culprits.

Twelve of the robbers were jailed for a total of more than 300 years, although more than one broke out of prison, including notorious Ronnie Biggs.

He spent more than 30 years on the run before he finally returned to Britain in 2001 to face arrest. Reynolds returned in 1968, five years after the crime, and was captured in Torquay and jailed for 25 years.

He died six months ago, aged 81. Two police officers who were involved in the investigation will attend tonight's event alongside serving Thames Valley Police officers at Eynsham Hall in Witney, Oxfordshire.

Keith Milner was a detective at Aylesbury at the time of the robbery, while John Woolley was a PC and discovered Leatherslade Farm, where the men hid after committing the crime.

Last month, Biggs insisted he was proud to have been part of the gang. The famous fugitive, who will celebrate his 84th birthday tomorrow, escaped from prison in 1965 and spent 36 years on the run before finally being arrested and jailed in 2001.

Biggs’ exploits lent him and other gang members a cult status among some, but for those who reported on the incident at the time, their abiding memory, perhaps surprisingly, is of an inept crime.

Veteran reporter Chris Moncrieff, who covered the Great Train Robbery for the Press Association news agency, said: “It was ludicrously glamorised and its participants adulated as latter-day heroes who had carried out a Boy's Own Paper-style exploit of great derring-do.

It was woefully planned and disastrously executed by a bunch of incompetent criminals

Veteran Press Association reporter Chris Moncrieff

Released from prison on compassionate grounds in 2009 due to ill health he is still alive, being cared for in a north London nursing home.

And he has few regrets about the crime that made him a household name. Biggs, who cannot speak and communicates through a spelling board, said: "If you want to ask me if I have any regrets about being one of the train robbers, my answer is, 'No!'.

"I will go further: I am proud to have been one of them. I am equally happy to be described as the 'tea-boy' or 'The Brain'.

"I was there that August night and that is what counts. I am one of the few witnesses - living or dead - to what was 'The Crime of the Century'.

”But although he is proud to have been involved in the headline-grabbing crime, he admitted he does have some regrets.

"It is regrettable, as I have said many times, that the train driver was injured," he said. "And he was not the only victim.The people who paid the heaviest price for the Great Train Robbery are the families.

"The families of everyone involved in the Great Train Robbery, and from both sides of the track. All have paid a price for our collective involvement in the robbery. A very heavy price, in the case of my family.

"For that, I do have my regrets."

“But it should have been called the Great Bungled Train Robbery.

“It was woefully planned and disastrously executed by a bunch of incompetent criminals.

“Most of them were behind bars within days of the heist and a lot of the £2.6 million, a vast sum now, and an unimaginable amount half a century ago, was recovered - although not all.“Most people would assume that those planning such a massive crime would have prepared the ground in the most minute detail.

Tonight's event will celebrate the heroic police who searched for the clues that led to the arrests

Biggs’ exploits lent him and other gang members a cult status among some, but for those who reported on the incident at the time, their abiding memory, perhaps surprisingly, is of an inept crime.

Veteran reporter Chris Moncrieff, who covered the Great Train Robbery for the Press Association news agency, said: “It was ludicrously glamorised and its participants adulated as latter-day heroes who had carried out a Boy's Own Paper-style exploit of great derring-do.

Notorious Ronnie Biggs arrested after the robbery would later escape and go on the run in Brazil

“In fact, the preparation was so slovenly, or even non-existent, that the robbers played straight into the hands of the police.“They should have predicted the mindset of the police.

“In fact they made life ridiculously easy for the detectives on their trail.

“In short, it was a master-class on how not to carry out a robbery.

“They handed everything over to the police on a plate.”

“But it should have been called the Great Bungled Train Robbery.

“It was woefully planned and disastrously executed by a bunch of incompetent criminals.

“Most of them were behind bars within days of the heist and a lot of the £2.6 million, a vast sum now, and an unimaginable amount half a century ago, was recovered - although not all.“Most people would assume that those planning such a massive crime would have prepared the ground in the most minute detail.

A Daily Express graphic showing which jails the robbers had been sent to

"The public had been asked to look out for suspicious-looking people carrying an inordinate amount of five-pound notes.

In fact, one of the robbers checked into a Bournemouth boarding house with a suitcase from which fivers were visible through the hinges."

The policeman who investigated the crime died thinking there were still some robbers who had got away.

Malcolm Fewtrell, the police officer who led Buckinghamshire CID at the time, died in November 2005 at the age of 96.

Before his death, he said he thought four robbers had got away with their part in the crime.

And Mr Fewtrell remained convinced before his death that some had walked free from the crime of the century, despite not revealing their names.

"We knew who they were but there was nothing on them. They didn't leave their fingerprints like some of the others," he said.

"They got away with their £150,000. They knew they were safe so they could still be in the country. I don't know where they went."

Bruce Reynolds was considered the gang's mastermind but he was quickly arrested

Train driver Jack Mills was smashed around the head with an iron bar, then dumped on a grass verge

“In fact, the preparation was so slovenly, or even non-existent, that the robbers played straight into the hands of the police.“They should have predicted the mindset of the police.

“In fact they made life ridiculously easy for the detectives on their trail.

“In short, it was a master-class on how not to carry out a robbery.

“They handed everything over to the police on a plate.”

The Bridego Bridge near Ledburn, Bucks, from which robbers unloaded £2.6million haul

"The public had been asked to look out for suspicious-looking people carrying an inordinate amount of five-pound notes.

In fact, one of the robbers checked into a Bournemouth boarding house with a suitcase from which fivers were visible through the hinges."

The policeman who investigated the crime died thinking there were still some robbers who had got away.

Malcolm Fewtrell, the police officer who led Buckinghamshire CID at the time, died in November 2005 at the age of 96.

Before his death, he said he thought four robbers had got away with their part in the crime.

And Mr Fewtrell remained convinced before his death that some had walked free from the crime of the century, despite not revealing their names.

"We knew who they were but there was nothing on them. They didn't leave their fingerprints like some of the others," he said.

"They got away with their £150,000. They knew they were safe so they could still be in the country. I don't know where they went."